Merged ITV to announce redundancies

Sales teams at Carlton Media Sales and Granada Enterprises are bracing themselves for major job losses. The head count of redundancies is expected to be more than 300 and will be announced within the next week.

ITV plc, a merger of Carlton Communications and Granada, will start trading on the stock market from Monday.

Carlton Media Sales employs about 300 sales staff and Granada Enterprises about 400.

Graham Duff, who will head the merged sales team as managing director ITV Sales, has appointed his senior line-up, which includes Gary Digby as sales director, Simon Lent as London sales leader, Jill Kerslake as director of sales operations, Andy Bagnall director of knowledge management, Deborah Chalet as cinema director and Justin Sampson as director of customer relationship management.

But some roles remain vacant, such as head of sponsorship. Granada Enterprises sponsorship and licensing director Martin Lowde is in pole position to get the job. This follows the move by Carlton Media Sales’s director of sponsorship David Prosser to Carlton Screen Advertising. Prosser’s new role is director of exhibition responsible for making sure contractual rights are in place with cinemas. He will report into Chalet, who is also chief executive of CSA.